TEHRAN (FNA)- US Senator John McCain condemned President Donald Trump’s decision to nominate Gina Haspel to lead the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), saying she was involved in “one of darkest chapters in American history.”

“The torture of detainees in US custody during the last decade was one of the darkest chapters in American history,” McCain said in a statement, adding that “Ms. Haspel needs to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIA’s interrogation program during the confirmation process”, presstv reported.

Haspel, a black ops veteran who joined the CIA in 1985, was once in charge of a clandestine interrogation operation in Thailand accused of torturing detainees. If approved by the Senate, Haspel would become the first woman ever to be director of the CIA.

President Trump nominated Haspel, 61, to lead the top US spy agency, after he tapped current CIA director Mike Pompeo to be Secretary of State.

Trump fired Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State on Tuesday after a series of public rifts over issues including Iran, Russia and North Korea.

Progressive groups are fighting back against Haspel’s nomination, saying her involvement in the CIA’s torture program should “disqualify her” from the top position.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said Haspel was “up to her eyeballs in torture, both in running a secret torture prison in Thailand and carrying out an order to cover up torture crimes by destroying videotapes.”

Despite her controversial past, Haspel’s rise is not entirely surprising. She is respected in the US intelligence community as she previously served at the CIA deputy director and led worldwide undercover spying operations.

Several other lawmakers said they would challenge Haspel over torture, potentially setting the stage for a rocky confirmation hearing when she goes up before the Senate Intelligence Committee for in the coming weeks.

"Ms. Haspel's background makes her unsuitable to serve as CIA director," Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, a committee member, stated on Tuesday, underlining that "If Ms. Haspel seeks to serve at the highest levels of US intelligence, the government can no longer cover up disturbing facts from her past."

Haspel reportedly presided over the torture of key al-Qaeda suspects Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri who were interrogated and repeatedly waterboarded at the CIA's black site prison in Thailand.

According to reports, Zubaydah alone “was waterboarded 83 times in a single month, slammed into walls and confined in a coffin-like box” before CIA interrogators determined that he had no useful information to provide.

“I felt I was going to explode from bending my legs and my back and from being unable to spread them not even for short instants,” Zubaydah wrote to his lawyers in 2008, describing being placed in the box, adding that “The very strong pain made me scream unconsciously.”

TEHRAN (FNA)- Kurdish sources in Northeastern Syria disclosed once again on Monday that the US troops have conducted heliborne operations to rescue a number of entrapped ISIL commanders who had escaped to Northern Hasaka province after losing the war in Iraq.

TEHRAN (FNA)- United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the longstanding Israeli siege on Gaza Strip has led to deteriorated living conditions of approximately two million Palestinians in the blockaded coastal enclave.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in a message felicitated Angela Merkel on her reelection as the Chancellor of Germany, voicing the hope that bilateral ties between Tehran and Berlin would expand based on mutual respect and common interests.

TEHRAN (FNA)- A US-Israeli plot to launch attacks against Damascus from several fronts in collaboration with the NATO, Israel and Jordan failed, sources revealed on Monday as the Syrian army carried out successful operations in Eastern Ghouta.

TEHRAN (FNA)- The Iranian foreign ministry said the French top diplomat, Jean-Yves Le Drian's adamant stance on Iran's missile and regional power after he was briefed about Tehran's policy during a recent visit to the Asian nation is a source of regret and display that talks with some Western statesmen might lead to nowhere.

TEHRAN (FNA)- More than 79,000 civilians have left terrorist-held regions in Eastern Ghouta via humanitarian corridors for safe zones controlled by the Syrian Army troops, the spokesman for the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria said on Monday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Rapporteur of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Seyed Hossein Naqavi Hosseini rapped Washington for numerous violations of the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and the world powers.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Commander of the Iranian Border Guards Brigadier General Qassem Rezayee said the country's border guard who was wounded in a 2017 cross-border attack in Southeastern Iran and was then taken by the terrorists to Pakistan is still alive.

TEHRAN (FNA)- The Turkish Army's new convoy of forces and equipment has entered Southern Idlib, field sources reported on Monday, adding that the Syrian Army has opened fire at regions near the positions of the Turkish troops in Southern Aleppo.